Through the Deep Forest — Russell C. Connor

THE WORLD IS WINDING DOWN.

Centuries after humanity's last stand against the Dark Filament, their servants -- the bloodthirsty creatures known as Incarnates -- hunt down anyone under the age of eighteen. Civilization is broken, and the remaining population is elderly, isolated and hopeless.

Sixteen-year-old Korden Bright has lived his entire life behind the Barrier, a mystical shield which hides him from the Incarnates. There, a group of ancient men from the time before apprentice him in the magical discipline of artcraft, based upon one's creativity and force of will.

When the Barrier is breached, Korden will leave to journey across a post-apocalyptic America, from the shores of a place once called California, all the way to the Shroud in the far east, which marks the battlelines of the armies of the Filament. But first he'll have to survive the wild forest just beyond his village, where he might find something far worse than Incarnates...